This article is part of a directory: Stardew Valley: Complete Guide
Table of contents

Highlights

  • Stardew Valley tricks make the farm life a little bit easier - from early access to secret areas, to duplicating valuable items.
  • With the right name, you can receive endless copies of almost any item in the game for free by using a simple exploit (on PC, that is).
  • Overwhelm the game by opening dialogue with Robin at the same time in multiplayer to quickly build farmyard structures.

The farm life is a fruitful life, but one that takes a lot of time. Many days are spent toiling away under the sun, tilling the soil, and tending to crops to eventually reap the rewards. Well, it’s a good thing Stardew Valley is a video game, because with video games come cheats, and with cheats the farm life is easier than ever.

stardew valley farmer in the kitchen-1
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There are several cheats and exploits in the game to help you out; some may not work on every console or past particular updates, but they exist nonetheless to shortcut some of the grinding, and help your small-time farm reach the big leagues.

Updated April 26, 2024 by Gabrielle Castania: Now that the version 1.6 update has been released for PC, we're circling back to double-check that every cheat mentioned in this list of Stardew Valley cheats still functions as intended. We've removed anything from our list that no longer functions in updated versions of the game, and this list is current as of version 1.6.4.

5 Early Access To The Secret Woods

Stardew Valley Player Holding A Morel Next To A Bench At The Entrance To The Secret Woods

Typically, the only way to gain access to the Secret Woods, and ultimately rare foragables and a hidden Stardrop, is by upgrading your Axe to at least Iron. This costs a few thousand gold to do, which is big money early in the game. This cheat means you can skip Clint's lengthy forging process, and gain access on day one.

How To Do It

An Iron Axe or better is needed to chop up Hardwood logs, however, by picking up a chair from your house you can glitch over the log. Bring any chair to the fallen log in the north-west of the Cindersap Forest, and place it on the far side of the log. From a couple of paces away you can still jump onto a chair or bench. Then dismount normally, and you're in the Woods. Put the chair on the opposite side of the log and sit on it to leave again.

4 Item Duplication

Stardew Valley Two Players Facing A Table Indoors Holding A Prismatic Shard

A fairly common cheat involves duplicating items, especially valuable ones, whether for monetary gain, mass crafting, or progressing the game more quickly. Thanks to the lag that occurs between the host of a game's server and the other people playing, it's possible to get endless numbers of an item very easily in multiplayer mode.

How To Do It

All you'll need is at least two players, though this works faster the more people you have, and a table. Place the item you wish to duplicate onto the table, and every player must pick it up at the same time. The game makes a copy for each person picking it up, so you can continue placing one onto a table and all picking it up for quick dupes.

3 Speedy Building Time

Stardew Valley Farm Construction - Robin working on a building on the player's farm, the player reading the sign that says Under Construction

Usually, upon hiring Robin to build something for you, it will take her a few days of slowly hammering away at the same nail, and only one structure can be made at a time. However, in multiplayer mode, it's possible to convince Robin to get a move on without hurting your friendship!

How To Do It

This glitch involves overwhelming the game by having every player on the server opening dialogue with Robin at once. The more people involved, the more buildings you can get on your farm at once. You'll still need to have all the materials and funds necessary though. You can each choose a space for what you want on your farm, and then hit the green tick simultaneously. She won't be able to turn down anyone, and so will finish all the buildings at once.

2 Out of Bounds

Stardew Valley Player Fishing Out Of Bounds In The River During Fall

Some of the best cheats let you completely break the boundaries of games, and there’s one in Stardew Valley just for that. This is a handy trick for fishing in early game, as you can actually walk out to the deeper parts of the sea or the lakes when your fishing level is too low to reach them.

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How To Do It

If you stand at the edge of an area – at the top of the beach, for example – and swing a weapon rapidly, you’ll gradually start shifting forward. Keep going far enough and you’ll actually bust out of the boundaries of the area, allowing you to move around in spaces you can’t usually access.

1 Free Items

player inside saloon, full of NPCs

This no longer works on console versions of the game, but still works on PC. ConcernedApe previously said in interviews that it wouldn't get patched out for PC, but that he had to do so on the console versions for stability reasons.

This is arguably the very best cheat of all. Each item in the game has a code assigned to it. Knowing the code for an item allows you to get as many copies of it as you want.

How To Do It

Name your character with one to three of those codes in brackets, and every time your name is said in the game, one or more of those items will be spawned.

  • Example: Naming yourself "[163][166][434]" will cause a Legend fish, Treasure Chest, and Stardrop to spawn in your inventory any time your name is spoken.
naming a farmer with item codes stardew valley cheats

The best way to milk this is to talk to Gus in the Saloon. He says a generic welcome the first time you interact with him, but after that, he says your full name. Talk to him over and over to spam free items for yourself. Go wild – assign your name to make expensive stuff like diamonds, or useful items like ore.

You can also use this exploit by naming an animal with one of the codes when you buy them, but it only works once.

In the expandable table below, you can find every code you can use.

By choosing the perfect name for your farmer, you can very easily cheat Stardew Valley into giving you any item you'd like.

Stardew Valley list of hearts next to a sprite of Penny looking at the viewer and smiling.
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